Multiple sequency type wheel printer



5 Sheets-Sheet l A. l. DUMEY MULTIPLE SEQUENCY TYPE WHEEL PRINTER LTEINVENTOR. ARNOLD I. DUMEY BY 5 ATTORNEY FIGJ.

Aug. 7, 1956 Filed April 28, 1954 Aug. 7, 1956 A. l. DUMEY I 2,757,605

MULTIPLE SEQUENCY TYPE WHEEL PRINTER Filed April 28, 1954 5 Shets-Sheet2 INVENTOR.

A'RNOLD I. DUMEY WW. M

ATTORNEY A g- 7 1956 1. DUMEY 2,757,605

' MULTIPLE SEQUENCY TYPE WHEEL PRINTER Filed April 28, 1954 5Sheets-Sheet 5 FIG.3.

INVENTOR. ARNOLD I. DUMEY agzumm A TTOHNEY Aug. 7, 1956 A. l. DUMEYMULTIPLE SEQUENCY TYPE WHEEL PRINTER Filed April 28, 1954 5 Sheets-Sheet4 FIG.6. o /O 9 9o 98 95 a4 97 96a 69 c; as

INVENTOR.

ARNOLD I. DUMEY ATTORNEY 7 9 A. 1. DUMEY 2,757,605

MULTIPLE SEQUENCY TYPE WHEEL PRINTER Filed April 28, 1954 5 Sheets-Sheet5 I01 AMPLIFIER 107 PREDETERMINED COUNTER |o COUNTER STORAGE TO HAMMERcoNTRo| 102 GATE THYRATRONS CHARACTER' SIGNAL INPUT TO SOURCE OF PRINTINITIATING SIGNAL FIG. '7.

A Mojave? United States Patent 2,757,605 MULTIPLE SEQUENCY TYPE WHEEL,PRINTER Arnold I. Dumey, Roslyn Heights, N. assign or to PotterInstrument Co., Inc., Great Neck, N. Y., a cor poration of New YorkApplication April 28, 1954, Serial-No. 426,236 I '1 Claim. (Cl. 101 -93Printing hammers are actuated by means of electronically stored andcoded information which provides impressions while the type wheel is inmotion. In the system described, a hammer is provided for each characterto be printed in a given line across the paper and on the type wheel aseries of font characters is provided one for each different characterto be printed. The time required to print one line on the paper is thetime which elapses from the time the first character of the fontapproaches the first hammer until the lastcharacter of the font leavesthe last hammer position; If one pulse unit of time is assigned to thetime required for one character to pass one hammer, the time required toprint one line is equal,

in pulse units of time, to the number of characters in the font plus thenumber of hammers. Thus, -with an 2,757,605 Patented Aug. 7, 1 956 Fig.5 shows a representation of a modification of the type wheel accordingto the present invention.

Fig. 6 shows a representation of a further modification of the typewheel according to the present invention.

Fig. 7 shows, in block diagram, one method of printing with the modifiedtype wheels of the present invention.

' Fig. 1 shows a type wheel 1 carrying a plurality of type faces 2around its outer edge. One possible arrangement of type faces isrepresented by the letters placed adjacent to these type faces as A, B,C etc. Printing is carried out upon a sheet of paper 6 through themedium of type-writer ribbon 3 extending between spools 4 and S. Theimpression of the type faces through the ribbon upon the paper isaccomplished by means of hammers 7 supported in yoke 8 and actuated overlinkage 9 by relay clapper 10. Relay 11 is energized over leads 12 and13 from plate'14 of a thermionic tube also including control grid 16 andcathode 17. The tubes receive plate current from a suitable source suchas battery 20 and grids 16 receive an initial cut-off bias fromthe'negative end of battery 20 through grid resistor 19. Pulses to causetubes 14-1617 to conduct and thereby to energize relays 11 and to printare derived from counters 24 through coupling capacitors 23 over leads22 to grids 16. Suitable pulses to the counters are supplied over leads25, 26, 27 etc. Pulses are generated each time a character advances onthe type Wheel by means of light passing through one of holes 100 inindex wheel 30 and impinging on photoelectric cell 29. Each time asequence of type begins on the type wheel a starting pulse is generatedin photoelectric cell 102 due to light passing through one of ice holes101. Further details of the operation of the system 80 character lineand a 63 character font, 143 units of I pulse time would be required toprint one line. I

According to the present inventionthe time required to print one line isreduced to approximately the pulse time of the characters in the font or63 in the above This improved result is accomplishedby utiof, printingof a rotary type wheel printer.

Another object is to greatly reduce lost time in arotary type wheelprinter.

7 Still another object is to provide a rotary type wheel printerutilizing a plurality of type sequences around the circumference of asingle type wheel.

A further object is to provide a type wheelu printer with which printingmay be initiated at aplurality of points around the circumference of thetype wheel.

These and other objects of the present invention will The apparent fromthe detailed description of the [inven- 'tion given in connection withthe various figures of the drawing.

.In the drawing:

Y Fig. 1 shows one form of the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows a side view partly in section of the form "ofthe inventionshown inFig. 1..

1 Fig. 3-shows a representation of. a type wheel available prior to thepresent invention.

Fig. 4 shows a representation ofatype wheel according to the present,invention.

the invention of the above referred to application.

are contained in the above referred to application.

Fig. 2 shows a side view, partly in section, of the device shown inFig. 1. Type wheel 1, index wheel 30 and commutator drum 35 are carriedby a common shaft 31 which in turn isrotated by motor 39 operatingthrough gear box 40 and receiving power from a suitable source overleads 4142. Pulses from photo-electric cell 29 are amplifiedby-amplifier 33 and applied to commutator 36 over lead 34. Commutator 36distributes the pulses to the counters over leads 2526--27 etc. Theentire device is supported by a suitable frame 43. The printing sheet 6is advanced by an amount equal to the space occupied by a line of typefor each line printing cycle. One way -in which the printing sheet maybe advanced is shown where sheet 6 passes over an idler roller 108 to atakeup roll 107 mounted on a shaft 109. The paper advance mechanismconsists in a ratchet 110 advanced by armature 111 each time it ispulled down by electro-magnet 113 against the tension of return spring112. The electro-magnet may be energized by a pulse at the end of eachprinting line which is applied over leads 114-115.

Fig. 3 shows a print wheel such as was contemplated by An arc of mhammers is shown at 36. The type wheel'is shown divided into an integralnumber of sectors 35, 3'7, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43. Since a givensequence of .printing could'not start until the last type face of thepreceding sequence had cleared the last hammer, only two fonts of type35 and 40 were possible on one wheel. Printing starting points could beat 53 and 54. A maximum of two printing sequences per revolution onlycan be utilized =since prior to the present invention it was not knownhow to operate a type wheel of this kind except in such a way as tostart a given printing sequence only when the type font of a previoussequence had passed entirely beyond the arc of printing hammers. Thus,although each type font occupies only 45 degrees of are on the printingwheel, only two fonts could be utilized on a given wheel.

Fig. 4 shows a type font and hammer arrangement ac- 3 cording to thepresent invention wherein eight type fonts are utilized on thecircumference of one type Wheel, each font being a repetition of thesame sequence. The 1: fonts are shown at 4 4, 46, 47, 48,49, 50, 51 and52. The characters and the order in which they are mounted in each fontare identical. The m hammers occupy an are which is about two characterspaces less than the total number of character spaces in two fontsequences. Expressed mathematically m is equal to or less than Zn or inthis particular case 111' equals 2n'-2. Also it will be seen that if thetype wheel is rotated through an angle equal to the angle occupied byone type font sequence, each of the different characters in the fontswill pass by every hammer in the hammer are 45. Thus, a completescanning of the fonts by the hammers is accomplished by rotating thetype wheel from the position shown until font 44 occupies the positionof font 46 at which position font 46 will occupy the position of font47. A scanning pass may start each time the hammers and any one of thefonts are in a predetermined relative position which may be called acollating position. This position may be chosen, for instance, when thefirst character of any font reaches a position adjacent to the firsthammer. Such a position is shown in Fig. 4. A starting signal generatinghole is also located with a predetermined position relative to itsassociated font on the type wheel for each font. These holes are shownat 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61 and 62 for fonts 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50,51 and 52 respectively. Whenever any one of these holes is in apredetermined spot it indicates that the fonts are at the collatingposition and a scanning pass may be started. A light passing through thehole into a photoelectric cell may be used to generate a signal to starta scanning pass. It will be seen that as the type wheel rotates itreaches a collating position eight times.

In other words, as the type wheel rotates continuously, it is in theproper position to start printing eight times during each revolution.Another way of saying this is that the system of the present inventionis ready to start a scanning pass each time the type wheel moves nspaces I whereas according to prior systems the type wheel had to move nplus In space positions to reach a new starting point. Thus, accordingto the present invention, the type wheel of Fig. 4 reaches a positionwhere it is ready to start a scanning pass eight times per revolution ofthe type wheel whereas according to prior systems it would require threerevolutions of the type Wheel for the starting position to be reachedeight times. This means an increase in printing speed of three times forthe particular arrangement of type and hammers shown in Fig. 4. Theincrease in printing speed for any particular case depends on the numberof type characters in a font and the number of hammers and is equal to nplus m divided by n. In practical systems the increase will usually begreater than the theoretical increase as reference to Fig. 3 will show.According to prior systems it would be possible to use only two typefonts in a circumference of the type wheel if the numbers of typecharacters and hammers were to be the same as those in Fig. 4 and theincrease in speed would be four times instead of the theoretical threetimes.

Fig. 5 shows one possible type font arrangement when a font does notoccupy an integral subdivision of the circumference of the type wheel.In this case the hammers form an are 63 equal to slightly less than thetotal are of two type fonts. The seven type fonts 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69and 70 are located adjacent to each other around the circumference ofthe type wheel but since they do not add up to a full circumference, ablank space 77 is left at the end. Since the starting point for ascanning pass must be such that during a given pass the type fontsinvolved are identical sequences including any spaces, only sixcollating positions are reached per revolution of this particular typewheel. These starting points are located by the starting signal holes73, 74, 75, 72, '76 and 71.

There is no starting point at the start of font 64 since thefollowingfont would be involved in a scanning pass and it is notidentical being separated by the space 77.

Fig. 6 shows how with the same type fonts as were used in Fig. 5 anadditional starting point may be provided. As in Fig. 5, seven typefonts are used at 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91 and 79 each equal to theindividual fonts of Fig. 5. However, in Fig. 6 the residual space aroundthe circumference of the type wheel is equally divided into seven partsand the equal spaces 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92 and between the type fonts.Thus, seven identical sequences are provided each sequence consisting ofa type font and a space so that seven collating positions are providedinstead of the six of Fig. 5. These seven starting positions areprovided with starting signal holes 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 and 93. Thus,according to the present invention almost any complement of fontcharacters and hammers may be arranged to provide greatly increasedprinting speeds.

Fig. 7 shows in block diagram, one method of printing with the modifiedtype wheels of the present invention. As set forth above wheel 30carrying periphery mounted type 48 rotates between light source 107 andphoto electric cell 29 and the pulse generating holes in wheel 30generate a pulse in photo-electric cell 29 each time the wheel advancesby an amount equal to the space occupied by a type character. The pulsesgenerated in the photo-electric cell 29 are amplified by amplifier 33and fed to predetermined counter 100 over lead 101. The predeterminedcounter 100 is set to count a number equal to the number of typecharacters in one font on the type wheel. Thus, if counting is startedat the point where the type characters and printing hammers are in thefirst relative position, the count at any subsequent type characterposition remaining in the counter will equal the subsequent positionswhich must be traversed to bring the relative positions back to oneagain. It is thus possible to start printing at any relative typecharacter and hammer position merely by subtracting this count from allthe counter storage units. Since subtracting a count is equivalent toadding the complement the actual count in the predetermined counters 100is inserted in counter storage 24 just prior to printing.

The sequence of operation is that character signals are fed to counterstorage 24 over lead 25 until all character signals are entered. Whenthe entry is complete, a printing initiating, signal is fed over lead106 to gate 102 which then passes the count in predetermined counter 100over lead 103 and over lead 104 to counter storage 24 making the systemready to print at once. This method of operation greatly reduces timelost in the cycle and allows greatly increased printing speed.

Whileonly a few forms of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, many variations will be apparent to those skilled in the artand within the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in theappended claim.

What is claimed is:

In a line by line printing system the combination of, a type wheel, atleast two identical sequences of type faces arrangedsymmetrically aroundthe periphery of said wheel, a'plurality of printing hammers at leastequal in number to the number of type faces in one of said sequencesarranged in an arc coaxial with and at least partially surrounding saidwheel, means for continually rotating said wheel, means for generatingsignals in accordance with a plurality of predetermined instantaneousangular positions of said wheel equal in number to the number of typefaces on said wheel, means for generating additional signals inaccordance with a plurality of predetermined instantaneous angularpositions of said wheel equal in number to the number of said sequencesof type faces on said wheel, and means for utilizing both of saidsignals in combination to initiate actuation of said hammers to printsaid characters at 5 6- predetermined positions on a record sheet duringsaid 1,675,969 Bull July 3, 1928 rotation of said wheel. 2,030,427Buhler Feb. 11, 1936 2,053,063 Bryce Sept. 1, 1936 References Cited inthe file of this patent 2,227,143 Knutsen D 31, 1940 UNITED STATESPATENTS 5 2 gler ly 29, 947

734,526 Ennis July 28, 1903

